Important books on Hitchcock's life and working methods include: Hitchcock/Truffaut, the founding work and still the definitive oral history Bill Krohn's Hitchcock at Work, the best single-volume text on Hitchcock's filmmaking process, based on extensive and thorough archival research and Patrick McGilligan's Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, by general academic consensus the best and most reliable biography on Hitchcock himself. On the other hand, he still engaged in stereotyping and the Male Gaze, plus his treatment of actresses has been questioned, particularly his troubling relationship with Tippi Hedren. On one hand, he frequently hired women for creative roles in the filmmaking process at a time when that wasn't very common, and his films often featured complex female characters. More recently, his complicated record in dealing with women has come under scrutiny. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1968): "Thank you very much, indeed." He is also somewhat well known for making the shortest-ever acceptance speech at the Academy Awards Ceremonies (on receiving the Irving G. Hitchcock was knighted a brief four months prior to his death. While some of Hitchcock's pranks could be considered pretty funny by most standards (such as one where he gifted his crew with expensive furniture at the wrap party, only for said crew members to come home with their presents and discover that said furniture was just a little too bit to big to fit through their front doors Hitchcock had, of course, been visiting their residences in secret and carefully written down measurements of their doors to make sure that this would happen), others definitely crossed the line into Dude, Not Funny! and Prank Gone Too Far territory (during the filming of Frenzy, after discovering that actress Elsie Randolph was deathly afraid of fire, Hitchcock "accidentally" locked her in a telephone box one day on set and started pumping smoke into the box), and revealed Hitchcock to be less of a merry prankster than someone with a latent sadistic streak. Hitchcock was also infamous for being somewhat of a prankster, who would frequently keep his film crews and actors, and even personal friends, on their toes with practical jokes, often very elaborate and well-planned ones. Hitchcock was also known for his frequent use of the " MacGuffin" (a term he popularized) in his films. Also, the Italian Giallo film movement was essentially derived from the Hitchcockian style. The Stanley Donen-directed Charade, for instance, was referred to by one reviewer as "the best Hitchcock film that Hitchcock never made". The Hitchcock style went on to typify a certain kind of screen thriller, one which was copied by others over time. Meanwhile, Hitchcock's first Hollywood production, Rebecca, was his sole film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, while the man himself earned five nominations for Best Director without ever taking home the prize. ![]() Rear Window, North by Northwest, Strangers on a Train, and The Birds are also frequently cited as favorites among fans, with Rear Window in particular often employed as a plot template in other media. Most people consider either Vertigo or Psycho to be his masterpiece, although Hitchcock himself was partial to Shadow of a Doubt among his own films. It didn't hurt that he started producing his own films beginning in the late 1940s, thereby allowing him complete creative control. Hitchcock was regarded as the major exemplar of this. The French New Wave critics, led by François Truffaut, played a big role in correcting this by propounding the " auteur theory", which holds up the director (rather than the screenwriter, the actors, etc.) as the primary creative artist on a film. Hitchcock also produced and hosted the television anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents from 1955 to 1965, although he only personally directed 17 of its 361 episodes.Īlthough "Hitch" is now considered to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, for much of his life he was dismissed as a mere entertainer rather than a serious artist. Almost everyone will have at some time or another seen at least one of his classic thriller films, many of which were adaptations of novels or short stories. The acknowledged master of cinematic suspense, Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) is also one of the most famous film directors of all time, if not the most famous. This presupposes, of course, an interesting story and characters worth revealing." ![]() The idea is to reveal human nature and behavior with your camera moves. It should be possible to make an interesting film in a closet with the door shut. That is, go to a great many places and locales. "People believe that the cinema has to, by necessity, be horizontal in its form.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |